Ever since Hunger Games: Girl on Fire launched earlier this year alongside the movie, we’ve been waiting for a Hunger Games iOS tie-in that fully captures the spirit of the series. The books are full of complex relationships, useful survival skills, and life-and-death drama, all of which would make for a great interactive experience. The Hunger Games Adventures, a port of the Facebook game, is a slowly-unwinding story that dives into the characters and background of the series, but without any of the danger.

It’s impossible to lose in The Hunger Games Adventures– the only benchmark for victory is how quickly you can progress through the game’s storyline. We find this amusing, because death is a very real prospect for the characters in the series, but not in this all-ages adventure game. You’ll still fire arrows at mutated animals called “mutts”, but they’ll stand and take as much damage as you can dish out before you run out of your allotment of energy.

Handling a breakout at the Mutt zoo.

Energy is the in-game resource that affects every action you take in this game. Collecting rocks and wood for your campground, trading supplies to other characters, and completing other basic actions for story missions all use up energy. You’ll regain one point of energy every five minutes, but as you progress through the game, even simple tasks will use up most of your reserves.

As a result, the best way to play this game is to time your experience with it so that you’re always about to level-up your character. Doing so gives you a full energy bar, so you may find yourself setting an alarm or checking the clock for the right time to re-enter the game. Some players will likely find this real-world time management to be a chore, but we enjoyed progressing through the game’s extensive and detailed storyline, so we stuck with it.

Despite the lack of danger, The Hunger Games Adventures does a good job of revealing more of the world of Panem. Early on, you’ll side with the citizens of District 12, including Katniss, Gale, and Peeta, as they try to survive the poverty inflicted on them by the Capitol. Later, you’ll travel to the Capitol to assist Ceena, Elfie, and Gamemaster Seneca Crane with their posh demands. The quests you’re given are never complicated, but they do provide some unique insight into the day-to-day lives of these well-known characters.

Home away from home.

When you’re not helping out other characters, you’ll be able to build up your forest escape, a secluded area in the woods where your character can build a campsite. Here, you can craft arrowheads or bandages, practice archery, relax in a cabin, pick fruit, and even purchase a pet. The forest escape offers a nice alternative to the bleak District 12 and oppressive Capitol, and it lets you pursue creative side-quests.

While you play, you’ll be treated to actual music from the film’s soundtrack, which is a wonderful touch. In District 12, you’ll hear Appalachian folk music, and in the Capitol, a blaring brass anthem. Graphically, the game sanitizes the film’s grittiness with anime-style versions of the characters, which are just a bit too cute for the violent undertones of Panem.

The Hunger Games Adventures feels like a game that plays you– your interactions each time you boot it up will be limited to just a few short quests, or a minute or two spent gathering resources. If you don’t choose to pay extra money to hurry along the story, you’re in for a lot of waiting. But over time, this game draws you in with its likable characters and constantly-expanding locations. We’re still waiting for a Hunger Games action game where the consequence for failure is death, but this iPad version of The Hunger Games Adventures is decidedly carefree.

Connect with us

Latest Recommended Games

The fine folks at Milkbag games have released Sidewords. A fun little diversion of a word game that is the devil child of crosswords and scrabble. For each level in the game the grid must be completed to win the level — this means that each letter at the top and side must be used. And not just the top or side, but each word must be made up of letters from the top and side to create a grid. It’s a pain, but in the right kind of way. Even the simplest of the levels can be a head scratcher until you get used to the game. Well worth the $3 as a diversion while we wait for Milkbag to finally release Snow Siege.

We’d like to thank our sponsor for this week, Zap Zap Kindergarten Math.

It’s not always easy to tear your kids away from their tablets and make them do something edifying. Thankfully, Zap Zap Kindergarten Math relieves you of this task by turning mathematics into a fun touchscreen video game. Win win!

Aimed at children 3-6 years old, the app makes math fun by ‘gamifying’ it, turning simple mathematics problems into little challenges so that your pre-schooler can learn and play at the same time.

There are more than two dozen mini-games, split across three categories: Numbers, Shapes and Measurements, and Add and Subtract. According to the developer the difficulty of these puzzles is adaptive too, so kids of any ability can be both encouraged and challenged.

Mini Dayz has launched and it’s a pixelated 2.5D open world that’s as brutal as the desktop version. In this game, the player is dumped on shore with nothing. They must scavenge around for food, water, and weapons while avoiding attack. It’s the kind of game where the goal is to stay alive as long as possible. But that will never be very long. It’s oddly free and seems to only have an ad on the main screen — for now.

Pewter Games has brought their charming point and click adventure The Little Acre to iOS. It’s an amazingly beautiful animated adventure set in a sort of hybrid magical / alien world. A great all ages adventure and very fun.

We’d like to thank our sponsor for this week, The House of Da Vinci by Blue Brain Games. There’s a reason Leonardo Da Vinci is the only renaissance figure who routinely shows up in video games you know. With his remarkable inventiveness and genius for creative problem-solving, Da Vinci was a gamer through and through. He was just born 500 hundred years too soon. Thankfully, there are studios like Blue Brain Games to bring him to life in videogame form. The House of Da Vinci, which comes to us courtesy of a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign, is a puzzler that seeks to channel the artistry and innovation of its title character.

You play as one of Da Vinci’s more promising apprentices, and you have the challenging task of trying to work out where the hell he’s gone. Was he assassinated by the church? Who knows. Has he quietly gone into a retirement? Perhaps. Did he accidentally invent a shrink ray and shrink himself down to the size of an dustmite? Probably not. Da Vinci’s workshop looks beautiful, thanks to some impressive 3D graphics, and the in-game environment is crammed with all the elaborate machines and crazy inventions you’d expect to find in the workplace of a renaissance genius.(more…)

Poly Bridge is out now on iOS, and it’s good to have it! It’s a great game and many seem to agree that it’s the best bridge builder game available. But the iOS versions, so far, is missing the sandbox mode. I would hope that it’s coming soon in an update. If you are all interested in physics puzzlers, grab this one. (Note: the video is for the PC version, I have yet to see a trailer for the mobile version, the developer Dry Cactus isn’t that great at marketing…)

Advertisement

Apple, the Apple logo, Apple Watch, iPad, iPhone, and Apple TV are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc. Other terms may be trademarks of their respective companies.